That Night (Or the One Where Tony Can't sleep)
by Jenndude5
Summary: Four times in Tony Starks life where he couldn't sleep, plus one where he finally did.


**A/N: I see this in the same universe as The One Where Tony Sleeps, but can easily be read as stand alone.**

 **One**

 **What hath night to do with sleep? ~John Milton**

"Rhodey, wake up!" Tony dived on his friend, bouncing excitedly. Rhodey let out a groan and attempted –and failed- to roll over, "Not now, Stark, 'm sleeping…" he trailed off into sleepy mumbles, already falling back to sleep.

" _Rhodey,"_ Tony whined, shaking the unresponsive body beneath him, "You have to get up! I have an idea, and I need your help with it!" He bounced again to emphasize his point. It was a really good idea, and Rhodey needed to be a part of it! "C'mon, _please,_ Honey Bear?" He said _please_ that should count for something! When the other male didn't move, Tony tried a different tactic, "I have really expensive alcohol!"

Rhodey huffed out a whine before sitting up. He glared over at the clock and hissed "Tony, it's 2:38 in the morning!"

"So?"

Rhodey shoved him off the bed.

That night Tony Stark wandered down to the labs, and drank the whole bottle of vodka by himself. He came to with a hangover and an AI named Dum-E.

" **Nighttime is really the best time to work. All the ideas are there to be yours because everyone else is asleep." ―** **Catherine O'Hara**

 _ **-Line-**_

 **Two**

" **I'm an insomniac; my mind works the night shift." ―** **Pete Wentz** **,** _ **Gray**_

" _Sir, you have been awake for fifty-eight hours,"_

"Your point, J?" Tony muttered, not looking up from the specks of the new missile Obie wanted. He was going to figure this out, he had to.

Failure was not an option. It never is.

" _My 'Point', Sir,"_ Tony doesn't remember programming Jarvis to be so snappish, _"is that you have been awake for more than two days; any longer and you run the risk of delusions, mood swings, and fainting."_

Tony snorted, "I'm _fine,_ Jarvis. Besides, I've gone longer. You know that." He pushed his chair over to a different work table and picked up a tablet, "You worry too much."

If the AI could sigh, he would have. _"You will also be at greater risk of insomnia in the future, Sir."_

"Yeah, well-" The billionaire's tightened his grip around the piece of tech in his hands, "-sleep is for the weak and the dead."

That night Tony Stark created the Jericho missile.

 **The last refuge of the insomniac is a sense of superiority to the sleeping world. -Leonard Cohen**

 _ **-Line-**_

 **Three**

 **When you have insomnia, you're never really asleep, and you're never really awake. ~From the movie** _ **Fight Club**_ **, based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk**

Tony lay sprawled across the couch in his dad's office, dressed in a rumpled dark suit, staring out at the early morning sky, half empty bottle of whisky hanging loosely in his hand.

They're dead. His parents are dead. Their funeral was yesterday.

 _Jarvis_ is dead. Tony hadn't been allowed to go to his.

He takes a swig. Numb. Tony feels numb- he doesn't feel anything. Not anymore.

He wonders if he ever will again.

Then he wonders if he had ever felt anything in the first place, because 'numb' isn't new for him.

He tips the bottle back. Stares at the sky.

That morning, Tony stark doesn't do anything.

That night, Tony Stark creates 'Just A Rather Very Intelligent System'.

" **Most people do not consider dawn to be an attractive experience-unless they are still up." ―** **Ellen Goodman**

 _ **-Line-**_

 **Four**

" **Sometimes I lie awake at night, and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night." ―** **Charles M. Schulz**

He's in a cave in Afghanistan. Yinsen tells him to sleep, that he'll need it.

But he can't, because there's a hole in his chest and a fucking car battery is the only thing keeping him alive and-

-and he can't.

Instead he thinks. He thinks of Pepper, and whether or not she's worried about him, of Rhodey, and if he's still looking.

Tony thinks of Yinsen and Gulmira and a family waiting. He thinks of his weapons in the hands of terrorists, and dead soldiers.

He thinks of water and how he'll never look at it the same. He thinks of missiles with his name on it lying in the sand beside him in some form of _sick_ poetic justice.

Tony can't help but think maybe he deserves this.

Then he thinks Yinsen doesn't.

He thinks about thinking, and how if he stops, how, if he actually manages to fall asleep, he might not wake up again.

Or worse –he will.

That night Tony stark makes the schematics for the Ironman armor.

 **In its early stages, insomnia is almost an oasis in which those who have to think or suffer darkly take refuge. ~Colette**

 _ **-Line-**_

 **+1**

 **The** **best cure for insomnia is to get a lot of sleep.** **-** **W C Fields**

Tony's been down in his workshop for three (four, five) days strait and maybe it was starting to get to him.

… _Maybe._

Not that he'd ever admit it, of course. Nope, nothing wrong here! Besides, he had work to do -important work, at that! So what if he occasionally hears or sees things that aren't there, or his hands shake too much to use the soldering torch anymore, he was _fine._

In fact, Tony was so fine that he _didn't_ jump out of his skin when Bruce seemingly appeared out of nowhere, nor did he squeak like a little girl when his fellow genius placed a hand on his shoulder. Nope. And if he had, it would have very manly, believe it.

 _Really!_

"Tony," Bruce started, sounding worried "you've been up for awhile. Maybe you should take a break, sleep a little." And no, that wasn't going to happen, sorry Brucie.

"Yeah, uhh, no," Tony waved a dismissive hand, "I appreciate the worry, big guy, really, I do, but I have more work to do," and too many thoughts to power down just yet, and without Pepper anymore… He would have to wait until he crashed, wherever that may be, "So I'll have to take a rain check on that 'sleeping' thing-" Bruce tightened his grip, successfully cutting Tony off.

"It wasn't a suggestion, Tony. You've been awake too long. We're all worried about you, especially after Pepper…" He trailed off, probably feeling Tony's wince at the mention of his –now ex- girlfriend. He sighed, the tightened grip becoming more comforting, "We just don't want you to waste away down here."

Tony looked away, telling Jarvis to pull up some new spec "Who's 'we'?" He asked distractedly, hoping to be left alone. No dice, Bruce stayed.

"The team, Tony, all of us care about you. You wouldn't want one of us to suddenly just stop eating and sleeping, holing ourselves up in a dark room with no human interaction for long periods of time." The disapproval in his tone was covered with a steady stream of gentle reprimand, similar to a parent scolding a young child.

Tony didn't know if he liked it, or if he hated it.

When Tony didn't move, Bruce breathed through his nose, "Look, Tony, I know this is a hard time for you, but you need to sleep, even if it's only for a few hours." Tony's hands balled into fists. He wondered if he should tell Bruce that the fact that he wasn't sleeping wasn't because he was stubborn, but that he genuinely _couldn't_.

"I-" Tony took a deep breath, "I can't." So maybe it wasn't that big of a deal, it _felt_ big, like some secret he had been carrying for his entire life, that he had kept close.

Bruce didn't say anything, just raised an eyebrow, as if to say 'go on'.

So Tony, tired and not thinking strait, and _tired,_ went on.

He went on about how he never had the easiest time sleeping, even before Afghanistan, and how it was near impossible _After_. About how the best way had always been to have a warm body beside him, but _After_ he'd never felt comfortable with a stranger in his bed. That Pepper leaving was the reason he had trouble sleeping, just not the in the way people think.

Bruce listened, and when Tony was finished and even more exhausted than before, he left. Tony only had enough time to be a little disappointed before he was back. With reinforcements.

"What- gah!" Tony exclaimed as he was forcibly removed from his chair by a super-soldier and a demigod, "Hey, what-"

"No arguments." Natasha (and when did she show up?) said in her 'no nonsense' voice -the one that implied that if you didn't comply, you might lose a very precious part of your anatomy in the middle of the night.

Needless to say, Tony shut up.

He was half drug half carried out of his workshop and up to the penthouse, where he was then deposited maybe a little-too-gently onto his bed. He had opened his mouth to argue –having already forgotten Natasha's warning- when he was smacked in the face with a pillow. He sputtered and turned a glare at Clint.

Bastard.

He was about to tell the archer just that, too, when he was yanked down to the bed by his waist, "Oof, what the fuck," he cursed and attempted to wiggle away from his captor –an apparently very cuddly Thor- when he was suddenly surrounded on all sides!

The others seemed to take Thor's manhandling as some sort of signal, and all started to crawl into Tony's bed, but as big as said bed was, it wasn't made for six people when two of those people were Steve and Thor, so they ended up lying on top of each other in some weird version of a puppy pile.

"Just except it, man…" Clint mumbled as he snuggled into Tony's arm, already drifting.

The billionaire didn't know whether to be mortified or thankful, but took the other mans advice anyway.

That night, Tony stark slept.

" **I only sleep with people I love, which is why I have insomnia."  
― ****Emilie Autumn** **, '** _ **The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls'**_

 **A/N:I actually have a partial alternate ending that didn't quite fit. I'll probably use it to move my plans along (*ominous laughter*) but I feel very pleased with this, so be nice please!**


End file.
